List building is the process of adding subscribers to your mailing list. This is your list of potential customers. Once you have them on your mailing list you can email them your new products, offers, adverts and build up your relationship with them. It's also a great way to keep people up to date with what's new in your market and your company.
List building is an ongoing process. You're not going to build up a huge list overnight, but every new subscriber is
a potential sale. You list is basically whwere your money is. So the more you can build up your list, the better.
So how do you go about building up your list?
Make your sign-up forms very easy to find.On a ridiculous amount of sites their sign-up forms are hard to find. They're hidden below the fold and only on the main index page of the site. When someone comes to your site and
can't see it straight away, they won't even realize you had a newsletter. You've then missed out on a valuable prospect for your product or service. Put your sign-up forms or even buttons in prominent places and on as many pages of your Web site as possible (ideally EVERY page). That way, you capture the subscription of everyone who is interested before they leave your website.
Have a privacy policy.
People are rightly concerned about the privacy of information that they give you. When every other company seems to sell or pass your details on to other companies or 3rd parties it's no wonder why people don't want to give their emails out to just anyone. Make sure you have a privacy policy that states clearly that you will not rent or sell their information to other companies. That helps to build the trust needed for someone to give you their valuable email address.
Give them an incentive to sign up. In oder to get people to sign up and part with their email address you need to offer them something of value. This could be anything from a free report, a "hot-to" tutorial, special discounts or offers that are only available to email list subscribers. It's all about enticing people with the prospect of receiving
valuable information through your e-newsletter that they won't get anywhere else.
Asking for details.
There is a fine line between asking for too little information and asking for too much. You don't want to end up
with lists where you know very little about the industry or preferences of your subscribers. One of the keys toemail marketing is to be able to personalize your emails and target specific sections of your list. If you aren't
asking for any details you can't personalize your emails. On the other hand, you do not want the sign-up form to be so long that the potential subscriber decides it is not worth the trouble. It is a tough balancing act and it will
take some testing to get it right.
Share your knowledge.
If you share your knowledge of your industry in articles, blog posts, etc., you can drive more traffic to your website and get more email list subscribers. Many websites that publish articles have space for you to include a "bio" section where you can include a little bit about yourself including a link to your website. Try to make this a text link
to drive traffic and work toward increasing your search engine ranking. Sharing your knowledge is a great way to get more email list subscribers and prospective customers. Once you have people on your lists, continue sharing
your knowledge as well as making offers.
Emails that your subscribers find relevant and up to date will keep them on your list and keep them interested.
Consistency is the key to long-term subscribers and customer loyalty.